Prescott, Wis.: Family-owned grocery store grills world-record brat

Caroline Loe, 12, of Prescott, Wis., holds two brats as a crew from Ptacek's IGA in Prescott attempted to set a world record for the longest brat on Saturday. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

Pat Ptacek wanted to find a way to mark his family store's 100-year anniversary. Something unique. Something amazing.

"It started as a meat market 100 years ago, so it made sense to incorporate meat into our celebration," Ptacek said. "I decided, what is the world-record brat?"

Now, he can say it's his.

Ptacek's IGA, the Prescott, Wis., grocery store the Ptacek family has owned and operated for a century, grilled and served up a 52-foot-2-inch bratwurst Saturday, Oct. 6 -- complete with a bun.

"I'm relieved," Ptacek said after the brat had been grilled and officially measured. "That's the most stressful brat I've ever cooked. Usually, you're just grilling with a beer in your hand."

Prescott Police Chief Mike Bondarenko, who was one of the officials to verify the length, said he was not only excited about the event but proud of the accomplishment.

"This is outstanding. A wonderful idea. It puts Prescott on the map," Bondarenko said.

David Sander, a weights and measures inspector with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, was the other official on hand Saturday.

He said he was a little confounded when he got the call last week requesting his help.

"Pat called and said, 'We're making the world's largest brat,' " Sander said. "And I said, 'You're what?' "

Apparently, to set an official world record, the brat needed to be vetted by a state official, Sander said.

"I didn't even know we did it," he said about the unusual request.

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The brat was made in-house by Ptacek IGA staffers. They started with a few test runs -- 10 feet, 30 feet -- then finally created the would-be record-breaker.

In order to make his idea work, Pat Ptacek needed a bun. He called Jimmy Hanson with Pan-O-Gold Baking Co., which makes brands such as Country Hearth and Village Hearth, and told him what he'd like to do.

"I told Pat, 'Let me do some checking,' and within a couple hours, we had a commitment," Hanson said.

The baking company built a custom 52-foot stainless steel pan and baked the bun in a 165-foot tunnel oven, Hanson said. They had to stop at 52 feet because it had to fit in a 53-foot semitrailer to be hauled to Prescott.

Hanson estimated the company spent about $20,000 to create the bun -- money it wouldn't recoup.

"Sometimes, you've gotta do a feel-good, and one family's gotta take care of another," Hanson said. "Not everything's about making money."

The brat was cooked on a charcoal grill made out of cinder blocks and metal grates. It took a team of more than a dozen people to roll the giant sausage in sync every couple of minutes, then to hoist it into the bun without breaking or dropping anything.

A second brat of nearly the same size also was grilled, as a backup for the hungry crowd.

When all was said and done, the brats were sliced up and sold for $4 per hearty serving.

Proceeds from Saturday's event, which included beer, music, a petting zoo and other food and activities, were donated to Have a Heart Inc., a River Falls, Wis., nonprofit that offers a respite program for families and kids with developmental disabilities.

Many attendees, though, were mostly there for the brat.

"We came here for this, definitely," said Cathy Feltes, a local resident, as she enjoyed her slice of the record bratwurst.

"This is cool. This is Wisconsin. This is brat country," said her husband, John Feltes.

According to the World Record Academy, the current record for the world's longest brat was set by Chicago's Berghoff Restaurant in 2011. Theirs was 47 feet, 3 inches.

A World Record Academy spokesman said Saturday that the organization was aware of the Ptacek attempt to set a new record, and that it would be an official record-breaker once all the paperwork and photographic evidence was submitted. That could take about two days.